The Tale of Ruru's Sacrifice for His Beloved Pramadwara

The story of Ruru, a prince, who could not bear to see his beloved wife, Pramadwara dead and so brought back his wife to life after performing a difficult penance and appeasing the gods. We have often heard stories of women sacrificing so much for their husbands. But following is the story of Ruru, a sage who gave up on half his age to bring back his beloved wife.

The man who gave up his age to bring back his wife. Image source- Hindipath.com

As popular tales go, there was once a sage named Ruru who was born from the womb of Pratapi, the wife of Bhrigu of the dynasty Pramati. He was a great warrior of the Bharata clan and the grandson of Manu. Ruru's marriage was arranged with Pramdwara, the daughter of a sage named Sthulkeshi. This girl named Pramdwara was the biological daughter of Apsara Menaka and Vishvavasu, who was abandoned by Menaka at the time of birth near the hermitage of Sthulkeshi Muni. Sthulkeshi Muni had nurtured Pramdwara as his own. One day when the preparations for the marriage of Ruru and Pramdwara were going on, Pramdwara was roaming in the courtyard of her house. At the same time, unbeknownst to her, a lazy snake was lying in the courtyard. As soon as Pramdwara's feet mistakenly fell on him, the snake bit her and Pramdwara died instantly.

Horrified, her friends carried her into the ashram of her father. Sthulakeshi tried to revive her. The neighbors, the forest hermits, and even the animals whom Pramadvara had cared for so lovingly came to her bedside. However, Pramadwara lay dead.

When Ruru came to know about this, he came to Pramadwara's house and was grief-stricken seeing his future wife lying dead there. He went to the river bank and took a vow that if Pramadwara did not live as a result of his good deeds, he would end the snakes and take his own life.

He heard a voice from an angel, “Are you willing to make a sacrifice? Will you give up half your life span to her? Then she will live.” Hearing this from the angel, Ruru immediately agreed to bring Pramadwara back to life by giving half of his life. At the same time, Vishwavasu Muni also came there sitting on a plane, after hearing the news of his daughter's death. Then both the angel and Ruru went to Dharmaraja and told him, "Dharmaraja, she is the daughter of Vishvavasu Muni and Menaka. The one who has been brought up by Sthulkeshi Muni, his marriage with Ruru has been fixed. She died because of a snake bite and now Rurumuni wants to revive him by giving half of his life."

After listening to the angel, Dharmaraj said "If you want to revive Pramdwara, go and revive her by giving half the age of Rurumuni." The angel came to the ashram and brought Pramdwara back to life. On opening her eyes, she spoke with a soft whisper, "Where is he?" Ruru came running towards her. "Nothing can come between us now ", said he. Soon, Rurumuni and Pramdwara got married and they both lived happily till the end of their lives.